There’s Something Special About Her - Chapter 82

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 82.
“Who was Felix Melcher again?”
“This bastard’s completely wasted! That guy, the one who got caught doing espionage!”
No one looked surprised that the name Felix Melcher had suddenly come up.
It meant they were all out of their minds.
“But why Felix?”
“I don’t know, someone must have mentioned his name.”
“Wait, I’m just curious—were you all close with Felix Melcher? If he was coming and going from your base, you must have been pretty tight?”
A male trainee who had been nodding off in his seat suddenly lifted his head sharply and answered.
“Felix—that annoying bastard!”
“Annoying?”
“He was floundering at the absolute bottom of our group, and he kept sticking to us! Such a pain.”
A female trainee next to him then nodded along.
“That’s right. He seemed to have a lot of spending money, so we hung around with him a bit.”
“That’s odd. I thought his family was just ordinary.”
When I offered my agreement, stories about Felix Melcher began spilling out from every direction.
“Right! His skills were pathetic, but somehow coins kept dropping out of his pockets—gold and silver both!”
“And he had this weird talent too! He’d never tell us how he did it, but he brought in forbidden items really well.”
“You shouldn’t talk like that about a guy who’s probably dead now!”
“Oh? Is that so? Ha!”
I had to sit in a room full of these idiots.
The more I engaged with them, the more I felt like filth was rubbing off on me.
Thinking I should gather information quickly and leave, I asked a second question.
“But did Felix Melcher really have that much money?”
“Just that he seemed to have a generous allowance!”
“Really rich people—like our Bertolt here—that’s what we’re talking about! Right, friend?”
“Huh? Me?”
Bertolt Kraus, who had been sleeping with his head tilted against the armrest of the sofa, blinked his eyes awake at the hand shaking him.
“We’re talking about that bastard Felix right now! You tell them—you were the one who introduced Felix to us in the first place!”
“Yeah, that’s right. That stupid idiot.”
I asked before he could drift back to sleep.
“So what was Felix doing to have that much money?”
“Beats me. I asked him several times, but he’d never tell. But you want to know how stupid that bastard was?”
Bertolt giggled while rubbing his tired eyes.
“He didn’t even realize we were using him. All these things in the base—he smuggled them all in himself!”
“The alcohol too?”
“Of course. Yeah, so one day I decided to follow him and see where he went.”
“Wow, Bertolt, you’re really impressive.”
If there had been a single sober person in this room, they would have noticed how little my voice and expression matched.
But Bertolt, already thoroughly drunk, puffed up with pride at my half-hearted praise.
It seemed like just a bit more digging would get me to a real lead.
Except Kraus’s tolerance turned out to be far worse than I’d thought.
The man who had been laughing and talking coherently just moments ago suddenly sprawled on the floor and shut his eyes completely.
“Damn it. Hey, Bertolt! Wake up!”
“If I put my mind to it…I can do anything, hm, there’s nothing I can’t…”
“So when I followed Felix, something came up! Hey!”
“Let me just sleep a bit…”
“This is infuriating!”
Kraus, completely passed out, didn’t wake even after I slapped his cheeks several times.
Just when things were starting to show progress!
I decided I’d have to shake down the others instead, so I turned my head.
But they were already sprawled out too.
I sighed.
I ran my hands through my hair in frustration and stood up from my seat.
There was no more information to extract, and no reason to stay in this place reeking of alcohol.
I stepped over the scattered fools lying about and made my way into the corridor.
I took a moment to breathe in the cool, refreshing air.
‘I’d like nothing more than to throw the door wide open so the staff discovers them,’ I thought.
But there was still more to get out of Bertolt.
Whether he suffocated on his own booze in there or not.
Thud.
I closed the warehouse door again and turned away without hesitation.
***
Back at my quarters, I immediately sat down at my desk.
I wanted nothing more than to bathe and change clothes, but I had to organize what I’d just learned while the memories were still fresh.
So I began jotting down the information line by line on paper.
This method usually revealed connections I hadn’t noticed before.
“It should, anyway.”
But the more I wrote, the more confused things became.
“Everyone’s missing something.”
Julia Zimmel had a clear motive: her connection to Felix Melcher and her ambition for success.
Yet she didn’t seem like the type to choose such a dangerous and reckless path as espionage.
Especially against Nox?
Julia Zimmel was simply too intelligent for that.
Kaspa Eschbach’s motive seemed plausible enough.
If he succeeded in extracting useful intelligence from Nox, he could gain backing from the Griffin organization that had taken root in his home territory, establishing a convincing foothold within his family.
But Kaspa Eschbach was too stupid to see such a grand design.
If he’d had the brains for it, he wouldn’t have spent his time earning the displeasure of his powerful father.
And finally, there was Bertolt Kraus.
That idiot still snoring on the warehouse floor was certainly the most plausible suspect.
A merchant company man based in Crolyn Kingdom, he clearly had some connection allowing him to know the inner workings of Wickes in detail.
“But.”
I drew a large question mark over the name Bertolt Kraus.
“Why, exactly?”
A man who came to Nox just to build up a decent career in the finance department or a Nox merchant company before eventually returning to his family to inherit his position—he’d have to be insane to do something like this.
No, that’s not it.
Seeing him drink smuggled alcohol inside the academy, his head seemed a little off.
“Ugh, I have no idea!”
It was late—I needed to wash and sleep.
Tomorrow, with a clear head, I might see something that wasn’t visible now.
With that thought, I tidied up the desk and burned the paper covered with information scribbles.
Then, just as I was about to draw the curtains, I approached the window.
Tap-tap-tap!
“What’s that?”
At first I thought it might be raining.
But the night sky above was bright with moon and stars.
So what was that sound?
“I must have imagined it.”
I’d drunk a considerable amount while feeding alcohol to those idiots.
Now I was hearing things—I should just get some sleep.
With that, I reached out toward the curtains again.
Tap-tap, tap!
This time I heard it more clearly.
It sounded like a small acorn tumbling down.
But it came from below, not above?
As I lowered my gaze from the sky, I saw a raven hidden in my shadow cast by the room’s light, pecking at my window.
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap!
The creature was attacking my window with fierce determination.
“Huh? You’re that one.”
It was definitely the raven that had delivered the Dupon Clan correspondence to Gisella Rot at the Nest.
I remembered distinctly its particularly round, plump body.
And when the raven’s bright yellow eyes met mine,
“Caw.”
it let out a short cry.
It seemed to mean ‘open’.
I quickly opened the window, and the raven stretched its legs and hopped inside.
Don’t ravens normally hop around in a bouncy way?
I thought it was an odd creature and asked it,
“What are you doing here?”
“Caw.”
The raven cried again as if answering, then deliberately planted one leg toward me at an awkward angle.
No way.
I opened the small canister tied to the raven’s leg the way Gisella Rot had done.
Inside was a rolled note with a single short sentence written on it.
[Come to the Kitchen immediately.]

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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